Nick Krug describes his view of charging Iowa State fan; Can Bill Self get to 1,000 wins?

An Iowa State fan is restrained by police after charging at Kansas head coach Bill Self after the Jayhawks' 108-96 overtime win on Monday, Feb. 25, 2013 at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa.
by Nick Krug

An Iowa State fan is restrained by police after charging at Kansas head coach Bill Self after the Jayhawks' 108-96 overtime win on Monday, Feb. 25, 2013 at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa.
by Nick Krug

• A few minutes after Kansas' 108-96 overtime victory over Iowa State on Monday, I went up to photographer Nick Krug to ask him if he'd seen the angry ISU fan that had rushed at KU coach Bill Self after the game before getting pushed back by a police officer.

As I was finishing my sentence, Nick pulled up the photos above on his computer.

Yep, that answered my question.

Anyways, some national outlets have started to pick up on the story and photos, including Deadspin and USA Today.

It was a great crowd. It was a great
game. I have no problem with what went
on after the game.

Here's what Nick saw while shooting the photos above:

I noticed the fan charging Self about
the same time the police officer noticed him.
The fan got close up to Self
and was pointing his finger, appearing
furious while accusing Self of being classless.
My guess is it had to do with Elijah Johnson's
dunk and being completely caught up in the
moment. The police officer quickly
got between Self and the fan, grabbed
his shirt, and removed him. Self
obviously noticed the fan, but he had
the presence of mind not to react while
letting the officer intervene.

According to the study, if Self keeps up a pace similar to his recent win percentage and stays at KU, he could get to 1,000 wins sometime between his 65th and 67th birthday. For reference, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim is 72, while Duke's Mike Krzyzewski is 66, and neither is at the 1,000-win mark. Coach K is closest with 951 career wins, and he started coaching at age 28.

if that is all you are worried about, either u r not really a K.U. fan, or u r simply an ass! worry about yourself, and if u r a basketball fan, worry about basketball, but something tells me u don't have a clue! u r probably a missouri or k-state fan. or the brother of the Iowa State fan who went after self, who like you, also has not a clue!

Also, I'm tired of all the "EJ's dunk was classless" garbage. He caught the ball with like 6 full seconds left. I'm willing to bet he would have been fouled had he tried to dribble the clock out. EJ received an outlet pass and had nobody in front of him. I'm sure nature takes over in the moment.

Is it a bit out of taste? Probably. Classless? No.

Certainly way less shameful than charging an opposing coach. Or throwing trash on the opposing players/coaches.

Ok, so I watched the highlights and I guess it wasn't exactly a long outlet pass. Still, not a big deal. I wouldn't be upset if the shoe was on the other foot. I'd be more upset that my team just got punked in its own building...

you don't dunk that ball. E.J. knows he made a mistake there. Iowa State was not trying to foul at that point, because they knew the game was basically over. E.J. apologized via ESPN, and K.U. outlets. it's over with, so people need to let it go. the Iowa State fans won't, though, and they shouldn't. Neither would our fans, if it happened to us. I bet our fans will be all over Marcus Smart, if we play them in the Big 12 tournament, or even if we don't play them, for doing the back flip on our Jayhawk Logo. If we criticize that, we have to accept criticism for E.J.'s dunk. Enough said!

Some of our fans were upset about Smart's backflip, others weren't. Releford commented on it, but not in an angry or vitriolic way. Even fewer of our fans were upset when Forte did basically the same thing EJ did at the end of that game. I didn't care about either one; I was upset that we lost the game -- period. And even among those who were offended, there were no angry confrontations on the floor, racist tweets, or death threats.

ralster, you have every right to disagree with me, or anyone else. we all have our opinions, and I value yours. I had no idea, until today, about the chants of the crowd, and some of the things that they did (throwing things at our players and coaching staff). but even with that, as both E.J. and Coach Self said, E.J. should not have dunked that ball-he should have run the clock out. If we are the class act that we claim to be (which I 1000% believe we are), then we need to be better than stooping to the level of the ISU fans. Look at what Trav said about Marcus Smart doing the back flip on our Jayhawk logo. We didn't do anything lacking in class, when we went to OSU's house and beat them. I, personally, would have taken the who gymnastics team, out of spite. Just kidding.
I also heard that the ISU fan base was tweeting racial slurs about our players. Does anyone know if there is any truth to that? If so, I am wondering just exactly what ISU's non-white players are thinking right about now, and any non-white recruits, who are considering going there. I guess there are people like that everywhere, but to post things like that, over the loss of a basketball game, is pretty idiotic! What does the ISU fan base think of their non-white players when they lose games, and if they win, do they get to ride in the front of the bus? What pathetic fans they are!

The guy is just an overenthusiastic fan. I'm sure his wife has been embarrassed before this. Put yourself in the position of Melvin and the 14,500 rabid ISU fans two minutes prior to overtime. They were congratulating themselves and their team before KU "snatched victory from the jaws of defeat." You all saw the fans as the cameras panned during the last moments of the overtime... Hoiberg's boy, a middle aged woman in tears. This was a gut-wrenching loss for a proud fanbase from Iowa. Everyone will get over it.

Sure, just an overenthusiastic fan ... it could have happened to anyone. I know lots of people who've had to stop themselves from rushing the visiting coaches bench and yelling obsenities at the visting head coach.

I don't remember Johnny Orr but I hear ISU fans praising him all the time so I looked him up last night....... Not impressive. His best season was 22-11. 2nd in the Big 8 and a sweet 16 appearance. 14 years at ISU with a record of 218-200.

For KU fans, all you need to know is that Danny Manning and Larry Brown never won in Ames. It was a tough place to play. Also, that Sweet Sixteen appearance featured a future pro named Jeff Hornacek. KU had some big battles with ISU. I don't care what his overall record was, he made Hilton one of the best home courts in the Big 8. KU fans old enough to remember know what I am talking about.

Niang DID fall back...more and more people are LESS up in arms about the charge / block today and MORE up in arms about the foul that followed when both Johnson & Niang were on the floor....what sent EJ to the line.

Agreed.... he was falling back multiple times including that awful call against Withey. The foul on the floor on Niang should've been let go. The ball got out to Tharpe anyway, so not really necessary to stop the play IMO

Niang was not close to set on the Withey "charge". Musberger even commented on it as they immediately showed the replay, pointing out that it was clearly a bad call because Niang was never set. Consistently bad officiating the entire game, not just the last minute of regulation.

Classless? Please! What about all those classless ISU fans yelling obscenities about KU before the game. In Jesse's live blog before the game it was reported their fans were yelling F@&$ Kansas! How's that for classless. I'd have dunked the ball too. Some nerve their Busch League fans have.

I've posted this elsewhere, but I think some of the "classless" rhetoric being thrown around is in response to the Marcus Smart back flip, or KU's response to it. KU players were saying things like "if we win, we'll just walk off the court with class," insinuating that the back flip was classless. Personally, I didn't have a problem with either the back flip or the dunk, and some have tried to rationalize it by saying one is during the game and one is after the game so they're different (which I disagree with) but my suspicions are KU is getting that thrown back in their face because of how they acted all offended. And if that's the case, well unfortunately you reap what you sow.

As to the rest of your post - spot on as usual. I can't count the number of times I just gasped "wow" while watching EJ last night. I was in complete awe.

He was going after the refs while they were leaving. If you are going to to go after the refs, do it during the game and take your "T" like HC Self did.
Having said that, I believe he has done a great job with the players he has.

Coach Hoiberg is a good young coach and given time will be a great old coach. He does have a good team and I don't want to see us play them a third time. Just glad KU won again and should win out the rest of the way.

While I would generally agree that the dunk should not have occurred, I have know ISU fans to be classless for many years. When I lived in Iowa, Iowa was a better collection of fans than ISU. The classless fans deserved the dunk.

Very insightful regarding a long term look at Self. If I am seeing what you mean about manipulating emotions it does take a toll and when you are down it can seem like being disingenious which is probably against the grain with Self. It is akin to dangling a carrot as motivation for getting good grades or results. It is a short term fix, which has its place, but is no substitute for learning to play under control and together. Once your play the latter way it is sustainable and consistent and more rewarding for all involved. Alas, we are talking about 18 - 22 year old people who may or may not get it.

Objectively speaking the no call on EJ should have been a charge considering Niang had better position than when Withey picked up the charge. Instead of calling the holding foul I would like to see the final 5.2 seconds play out as EJ passes to a wide open Tharpe who buries the three to win the game outright without OT.

Classless or not, EJ shouldn't have dunk the ball and just dribbled it out. I doubt he goes for the dunk in Allen and instead shows some senior leadership and runs out the clock. At the very least the dunk gives ISU more bulletin board material. They were beaten twice in OT, but the dunk escalates it to a personal level of disrespecting them on their home court. KU may face them again in the conf tourney and if so you hope it doesn't turn into a chippy game or that EJ isn't the victim of a cheap shot. Despite his struggles, he's better than that - it's something the Morris Twins would do.

When I watched the EJ interview and heard the intense booing in the background I put it together that the fans were booing Melvin and not coach. I think ISU fans are almost on par with their intensity as AFH fans; they just haven't enjoyed enough success to be refined into "classy".
On the other hand they drive me nuts when they whine /moan about every non call during the game. KSU is the same way. As KU fans I think we're a pretty sophisticated basketball audience, yet we (I may be the loudest at it) are also very quick to let the Zebras know about missed hacks and walks.
I think ISU is going to be great competition as long as Hoiberg is around. It should be fun.
Aside: Too bad Mizzerable is having such an all around lousy year in the SEC.

Aside from scoring 39 points, what exactly did Elijah do to ISU? You can complain about the dunk with some merit (e.g. poor judgment/sportsmanship), but that certainly doesn't come anywhere near justifying the BS involving Melvin trying to confront HCBS or the rascist tweets about Elijah or the tweets threatening to attack the KU bus with "30 bullets".

As for the conduct of KU's fans with respect to NU, I don't recall the incident. Nothing justifies behaving like this either. Having said that, NU fans were often very obnoxious and gloated about how their team would/just had run the score up. KU finally took care of the problem the right way; beating them by the biggest margin in their school history.

that fan that rushed Self was jumping up and down right on the sideline all game, yelling at refs and exclaiming outrage when calls didn't go ISU's way. I noticed him going crazy pretty much the whole game. Makes sense he was the one who got a little heated. You can see him clearly in the highlight video above at the 1:38 mark on the bottom of the screen.

LarryNative-I agree that the KU fans are loud and zealous, but not classless. I was at AFH for the loss to OSU and the backflip. The fans were loud during the game and appropriately so. After the game, there weren't choruses of boos during Travis Ford's interview (and he's NOT a classy, likeable guy like Hoiberg). The fans allowed him to enjoy his moment in the sun, even when he took his time posing for OSU fan photos courtside. The fans in the Fieldhouse are a pretty classy bunch.

Should Elijah have dunked that, probably no, but I look at it like a late game score in football. The offense usually will run junk plays to kill clock and end the game. If the defense has a lapse and lets them run one in, I wouldn't expect a player to fall down at the 1 yard line if he has a chance to score. In that example, the team and fans have nothing to be mad about since it's their job to stop it.

In this game, if Iowa State throws even a semblance of a defense at him, he likely slows up and just winds out the clock dribbling around center court. Instead, Iowa State just stood there and did nothing so he took it to the hole. As other posters have said, it could have been worse, he could have spotted up for 3 to go for an even 40. (If he had, then I'd be mad at him)

People keep forgetting that they were the ones that chanted WE WANT KANSAS. Well you got us alright and played an amazing game....even set a couple records. But, it wasn't enough at the end. Talk is cheap.

Classless is throwing stuff on the court and at our players. I've been at Hilton for our last few match ups, their fans hate us like we win everything. Oh wait, we do. Only one way to stop that but it didn't happen this night. Being hated is a major compliment...but you don't need to cross the line. Didn't expect to see fan replacements for missou but they seem to lowering themselves nicely to that niche. Rockchalk